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Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

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Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#531

Post by godDLL »

charesjrdan wrote: post #514

I caved earlier this year and got an M1 MacBook Air, $1000 (for the 16gb of ram model) and it’s significantly faster than my (2 year old but much more expensive) thinkpad, it doesn’t have a touchscreen but meets every other requirement you have, and you can now put Linux on it and it works pretty great, and will only improve as marcan and team keep up their great work

I was very excited to try those at the store. Failed on glossy screen that gets punctured by a single grain of sand left on the keyboard. Speaking of which, the keyboard gets stuck by the same.

So no.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#532

Post by godDLL »

bastijn wrote: post #513

Interesting how none of the top comments have weight in their lists. Number one for me is probably weight as I carry the thing around all day. To meetings, to work/home, etc. This includes weight of the charger. Next comes battery life. Next the time it takes to be usable after opening the lid. Trackpad quality next. After the other regulars like screen, keyboard, etc.

I think I've attracted more people that don't laptop at the office but in the field. My question framing might be to blame.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#533

Post by godDLL »

GordonS wrote: post #508

AMD processor, support for 32GB of RAM, matte 16:10 FHD display with >300 nits (14" - 16"), less than 1.8kg, camera in the lid, at least 2 USB-C ports (with at least one supporting DisplayPort), not too loud under load, good battery life, thin bezels to reduce the footprint and improve aesthetics. Apparently this is a big ask though :(

That isn't my use case, but yeah – it is a short list.

I see no reason for that not to exist as an immediate option.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#534

Post by _8j50 »

Sturdy and reliable. flimsy and poorly built laptops are horrible. I can tolerate a lot of features not being there if it's built as if vibranium was used at some point. Minimal plastic usage! Add hardware kill switches and you almost have perfection, at least to my preference.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#535

Post by godDLL »

chaosbutters314 wrote: post #468

at least 8 cores, Nvidia GPU, at least 1 tb of storage, the bigger the better as long as the power brick isn't too big. I don't care about battery life since I regularly max out cpu/GPU and will eat through any battery. I don't care about portability since I lift.

> I don't care about portability since I lift.

My man. I'd stop at 15in though.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#536

Post by mattnewton »

chias wrote: post #497
smoldesu wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- A good (not Homebrew and not quite Macports) package manager. - Ways to permanently disable Gatekeeper - Some kind of quick setup. On Linux I use a bootstrapping script, MacOS does not offer the same extensibility. - Real virtualization support like QEMU - Real container support (if I set up another local Docker host on a Mac I swear to god...) - Up-to-date coreutils - A way to install Git without dragging along a…

I feel you, but for me it's not a list of deficiencies in OSX. I came from Linux then used OSX almost exclusively (because work) for about 4 years and I still hate it. I agree the list of things above are real problems, but you could solve all of them and I'd still hate it. For me it basically it comes down to this: Macs are just similar enough to the Linux to fool me into thinking I know what I'm doing. But then thi…

> I want "natural" scrolling on the touchpad, but "regular" scrolling when using a plugged-in mouse with a mousewheel. The options are in TWO DIFFERENT settings windows, but changing one changes the other. Why? Even Linux, not famed as the Usability King, had this figured out in 2012.

This also drives me bonkers. The reason I think it is still this way is that at Apple everyone is using the Magic Mouse which has touch scrolling on it (you scroll like a trackpad with your finger) and so presumably most never toggle this. Another example of pain if you go off the happy path the apple developers use and keep tidy and clean.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#537

Post by Izkata »

Joeri wrote: post #367
foobarbaz33 wrote: post #119

> if I'm missing on any new developments since 2015 Yes, you missed something huge. Apple Silicon M1 or nothing. It's just too good. Low power consumption allows the laptop to actually be used as a laptop. The power use-to-performance ratio is unmatched by anything on the market. Apple is breaking us free from decades of stagnation on the hardware front. Nothing else on the market comes close. I expect this to change…

I was going to replace my thinkpad with a new thinkpad, but when apple released the M1 macbook air I had to change my mind. I paid the same that I would have paid for a T series, but got something that has the sleek thin and light build quality on par with an X1 with performance of a P series and battery life that hasn't existed on thinkpads ever since they dropped power bridge. Oh, and it is fanless. If my macbook a…

> If lenovo still made thinkpads like they used to: [..] and with top-notch keyboards, I might have opted for a thinkpad still. But they don't make those. All new thinkpads have so-so keyboards

I've seen this a few times and am curious: I got a Thinkpad at the end of 2019, and the keyboard is waaay better than the various HP, Dell, and Asus laptops I've had in the past. Did I get lucky or were all of those just way worse than I thought? What's the difference between old and current Thinkpad keyboards?

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#539

Post by Oddskar »

microtonal wrote: post #165
godDLL wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you about Apple breaking things. But we disagree on the keyboard. I'd say that all their mobile keyboards past 2015 are utter crap, and I'd wager that this can technically be measured in breakage, dust sensitivity, typing comfort and typing performance.

Since they switched back from the awful butterfly mechanism to scissors, their keyboards have been perfectly fine for me.

I still prefer my 2015 MBP keyboard to the 2021 one. It’s honestly crazy that they somehow regressed on this given so much time passed.

Re: Ask HN: What does one look for in a laptop these days?

#540

Post by motoboi »

nikau wrote: post #175
grandpoobah wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was going to post the same thing (albeit far more poorly explained). Isn't Microsoft embarrassed about this? This has been an issue for my last two laptops over the last 5 years. How is it acceptable for this problem to still exist? My Lenovo supports S3 sleep, but I didn't discover it until probably a year into having bought it, so at that point my battery's ability to hold charge had already been sufficiently degra…

Your battery is likely worn from keeping it charged at 100% constantly, lenovo have an option to limit max charge to something like 80% which will greatly reduce battery wear, you just have to turn it off if you are actually planning to run it without AC for as long as possible.

His battery is likely worn by recharging cycles. As the computer is being discharged more often.
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